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“Gentlemen, the Lunchbox Has Landed”: Representations of Masculinities and Men's Bodies in the Popular Media

“Gentlemen, the lunchbox has landed”: Representations of masculinities and men's bodies in the popular media

JimMcKay, JanineMikosza, BrettHutchins

Muscles are the sign of masculinity.

—Glassner (1988, p. 168)

In an article titled “Invisible Masculinity,” Kimmel (1993) made the seemingly contradictory comment that men had no history. Kimmel was referring to the paradoxical situation whereby (hegemonic) men have been conspicuous as athletes, politicians, scientists, and soldiers but largely indiscernible as men. As Kimmel (1993) noted, this veiled status is one of the principal ingredients of men's power and privilege:

The very processes that confer privilege to one group and not to another are often invisible to those upon whom that privilege is conferred… men have come ...